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University of Iowa

University Libraries

Jan 8 2010

Important announcement about materials sent to the Library Annex

If you have tried unsuccessfully to find a book or journal volume in the library stacks, it is possible that it may have been sent to the Library Annex in late summer of 2009.  InfoHawk records are being updated to indicate which books are in that facility and a retrieval service will enable you to have them brought back to campus for your use.  While we are in the process of updating InfoHawk, it may be necessary to use our Interlibrary Loan services to get access to some needed titles until this work has been completed. 

This situation came about through a series of events resulting from 2008 flood and the recent economic downturn.   The flood of 2008 required us to move the Music and Art Libraries temporarily into the already overcrowded Main Library.  To make matters worse, the recent economic downturn deferred indefinitely the construction of a planned collection storage facility.  To help alleviated the added overcrowding in the meantime, the University decided to lease a warehouse in the Iowa City area to house the lesser used collection overflow.  FEMA agreed to cover some of the leasing costs and the cost of moving and shelving, but all the work had to be completed by August 20, just weeks after a warehouse was found and leased.  As a result, several hundred thousand volumes were moved in about two weeks, leaving no time for a truly organized relocation.  While criteria were used to identify volumes for transfer based on low usage, availability of electronic versions, and age, the planned review of individual titles by library liaisons and faculty could not be completed in time for the FEMA deadline.

Library staff have been working continuously this fall to organize the materials at the leased facility and to change the location records in InfoHawk.  This is an enormous task that will require many weeks to complete.  We are also aware that a few books may have been sent to the Annex which should have remained in the stacks. If you think a volume may have been sent in error, send a note with as much bibliographic information as possible and the reason for your request to Edward Shreeves, Associate University Librarian and Director of Collections & Scholarly Communication.

Dec 21 2009

Bio Dictionary of Iowa Reviewed

The Biographical Dictionary of Iowa, ed. by David Hudson, Marvin Bergman, and Loren Horton.  Internet Resource. Reviewed in 2010 January CHOICE.

This collaboration between the University of Iowa Press and University Libraries is based on a print title that the university published in 2009 for the State Historical Society of Iowa. The print book and PDF e-book are available from the press for $45 each. The editors worked with some 150 contributors. The dictionary focuses on persons born in Iowa, living 20 years in Iowa, or making a significant contribution to Iowa. Those who died after December 31, 2000, are excluded. Biographees include athletes, writers, activists, scientists, and more, as well as Iowa governors and US senators/Supreme Court justices from Iowa. Not all are famous. The editors have chosen people who made significant contributions to the state, nation, or world, particularly those whose base was distinctly Iowan. The merely famous, the introduction points out, can be found on the Des Moines Register’s Famous Iowans Web page .

The Biographical Dictionary site is simple and attractive with tabs for the home page, introduction, and four browse functions. Users may browse 424 names, eight date ranges, contributor names, or 38 broad topics such as Indian Leaders, Mining, Settlement, and Women’s Rights, or use keywords to search the full text of the entries. The charming graphics come from a 1934 US Post Office mural–a Treasury Department art project. Entries vary in length but average about 750 words. They begin with birth/death dates and a very nice feature–an abstract of biographical highlights. In a lively but not unscholarly mode, entries cover personal and professional details, significant contributions, and long-term impact. Brief source lists complete the entries. For audiences of all ages and backgrounds, this site compiles useful and elusive information in an attractive, functional format. Photographs and better highlighting of keyword search terms would enhance the entries.

Summing Up: Recommended. All levels. — J. Drueke, University of Nebraska–Lincoln

Reprinted with permission from CHOICE http://www.cro2.org/, copyright by the American Library Association.

Dec 8 2009

Celebrating Iowa’s Right to Know: 125 years of service

This year marks the 125th anniversary of the partnership between the University of Iowa Libraries and the Government Printing Office (GPO).

To celebrate this anniversary, Federal Documents Librarian Marianne Mason has developed a digital exhibit

http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/exhibits/govpubs/

Dec 7 2009

Kerber Recognition in Iowa Womens Archives, Dec 10

Professor Linda K. Kerber, the May Brodbeck Professor in the Liberal Arts and Sciences, was inducted into the Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame in Des Moines on August 29, 2009.  Please join us as we celebrate Professor Kerber, who has devoted her life and career to the empowerment of women through a better understanding of women’s history. 

Thursday, December 10, 2009
4:00-5:30 p.m. (program at 4:30 p.m.)
Iowa Women’s Archives, 3rd floor, Main Library

Since joining the History Department faculty in 1971 Professor Kerber has inspired and mentored generations of students.  Her creative intellect, influential leadership, and invigorating teaching place her at the top of her field.  She is a champion of the humanities and a steadfast supporter of archives. She has achieved international distinction for her contributions to our understanding of gender, citizenship, and the legal and political status of women.

Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame:  http://www.women.iowa.gov/about_women/HOF/index.html

Nov 30 2009

Help Us Fold 1,000 Paper Cranes for Peace: Dec 3

The exhibition committee (Chiaki Sakai, Japanese Studies Librarian; Marianne Mason, Federal Documents Librarian and Duncan Stewart, Cataloging Librarian) will be hosting paper crane making session on Thursday, December 3 from 2-4 p.m. in Main Library, North Exhibition Hall, with the goal of sending a thousand paper cranes to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.

Japanese legend promises that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish. In modern times the thousand origami cranes has become a symbol of world peace. After they are donated to temples or other peace organizations, the cranes often are left exposed to the elements, slowly dissolving and becoming tattered as the wish is released.

Sakai will be providing demonstrations of origami paper crane folding, but you can watch a video online http://www.metacafe.com/watch/387698/how_to_fold_an_origami_paper_crane_orizuru/ .

Nov 30 2009

Material Witness: Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki exhibit in UI Main Library

At 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945, the world changed. An atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. A second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki three days later. These two cities witnessed first-hand how devastating the effects of nuclear weaponry would be. The cities were destroyed instantly and many lives were lost.

The current exhibit in the Main Library Exhibition Hall, Material Witness: Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki, features a Hiroshima-Nagasaki poster collection donated to the Libraries by the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. The exhibit covers the history of the atomic bombings in Japan up to present day peace activism.

The Hiroshima Peace Foundation organized a U.S. national poster exhibition tour of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki from September 2007 through December 2008. The purpose of the traveling exhibition was to convey the reality of the damages and horrors of those events, as well as extend the Foundation’s efforts for the abolition of nuclear weapons and calls for peace. Organizers from 103 cities in 44 states hosted the same exhibition and now the UI Libraries is joining them.

The exhibition was organized by Chiaki Sakai, Japanese Studies Librarian; Marianne Mason, Federal Documents Librarian and Duncan Stewart, Cataloging Librarian.

To learn more about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the exhibition committee put together an online resource guide at http://guides.lib.uiowa.edu/Hiroshima-Nagasaki.

The exhibit will be on display in the North Exhibition Hall of the UI Main Library through February 28, 2010. If you would like to schedule a tour of the exhibit for your group, please contact Kristi Bontrager (kristi-r-bontrager@uiowa.edu or 319-335-5960) to make arrangements.

Nov 30 2009

The Yellow Wall-Paper Brown-Bag Discussion: Dec 2

A brown-bag lunch discussion of the short story “The Yellow Wall-Paper” will take place from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 2, in Room 2032 of the University of Iowa Main Library.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a 19th century writer, was discouraged from pursuing a career to preserve her health and wrote the story as a challenge to the medical profession and the relationship between science and society.

Mary Trachsel, associate professor of rhetoric, will lead the free, public discussion.

In addition, a related National Library of Medicine exhibit, “The Literature of Prescription: Charlotte Perkins Gilman and ‘The Yellow Wall-Paper,'” is on display Nov. 30 to Jan. 9 at the Hardin Library for the Health Sciences.

Copies of the short story are available on reserve at the Main Library and Hardin Library. The story also is online at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/literatureofprescription/exhibitionAssets/digitalDocs/The-Yellow-Wall-Paper.pdf.

For more information, contact Ed Holtum at 319-335-9154 or edwin-holtum@uiowa.edu, or Kären Mason at 319-335-5068 or karen-mason@uiowa.edu.

Nov 19 2009

National History Day Workshop: Nov 19

The UI Libraries welcome National History Day students from across Eastern Iowa to a research workshop. These students prepare projects around a theme and present them at an annual competition.

Reference, Special Collections and Iowa Women’s Archives library staff put together a special library guide webpage for these students: http://guides.lib.uiowa.edu/nhd .

Students will be visiting the Main Library on Thursday, November 19. If you have any questions, please contact Janalyn Moss, Reference & Instruction Librarian, 335-5698.

Nov 18 2009

Iowa Doctors and the Germ Theory of Disease, Nov 18

The History of Medicine Society has invited Matt Schaefer, Archivist at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library to speak on the topic, “Iowa Doctors and the Germ Theory of Disease.”  

Wednesday, November 18
5:30 – 6:30 p.m.
Main Library, Second Floor Conference Room (2032)

The widely accepted notion that microorganisms are the cause of many diseases was very controversial when first proposed and doctors and scientists from different schools of thought and different countries reacted to the notion with varying degrees of skepticism.  Matt will examine the reception received by the germ theory in the Hawkeye State.

As always, light refreshments will be served.  Contact Ed Holtum for more information.